Hasta La Muerte

Southern Lord;
2012

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In hardcore, there's something essential about listening to the music in a group of people, with everyone going batshit. The Pomona, Calif., doom-inflected hardcore quintet Xibalba seem to understand this, and when they keep things straightforward, they're very good at making youth-crew songs that stick (and make you want to do anything but sit still). Since signing to Southern Lord for their second record, the quintet's shed the "metalcore" tag you could've affixed to their 2011 debut Madre Mia Por Los Dias (now licensed by SL). But when Hasta La Muerte ("To the Death") is most compelling, it doesn't get too fancy. For instance, the female vocals on "Mala Mujer", don't work. But when they follow the conventions and motions of both hardcore and doom-- the other genre they do well-- the blend can be exhilarating

Take lead track, "Sentenced", a song that ups the sludge of their previous offerings, but maintains the mosh parts. (Like all good hardcore bands, they have a great drummer.) The album was recorded by Taylor Young of fellow SL-imprinted hardcore group Nails. He gets a deep, full sound on the excellent slow-release doom/sludge-core instrumental, "The Flood", and keeps that sort of deep density when the band goes all-systems-forward on anthems like "Stoneheart" and "Laid to Rest". Throughout, the heavy tone of the guitars mixes with the sucker punches of the hardcore-- it's a huge-sounding combo.

Adding to that swarm, Southern Lord head, Sunn O))) member, and ex-hardcore kid Greg Anderson contributes guitar to a couple songs: You'll know, for sure, he was in the room for the Sunn-on-Disembodied closer "Cold". He also appears on the previously mentioned standout "The Flood", and you'll at least feel his main band's spiritual presence on the 8-minute "Lujuria", which finds Xibalba stretching without trying to rewrite the book (though it does feature a mid-song breakdown that feels almost black metal in its ambiance and anguished screams). These moments point to a natural, not forced fusion, like what you'd find in vintage Morbid Angel, a deep, intense, sick atmosphere that's so overstuffed, it can't help but spill over into different areas. (Fittingly, Dan Seagrave, known best for his work on early 90s death metal albums by the likes of Morbid Angel, Entombed, Dismember, etc., did the cover art.)

Xibalba is the name of the Mayan underworld, which is why there are so many groups who use it as a moniker (check out Metal Archives). In this case, it's a great description of the overall atmosphere. At MySpace, the band lists its genres as "death metal / hardcore / Latin." They sing the title track in Spanish and you get Latin-feeling group hand percussion in "Flood". In the video for an older version of "Cold", you see their close-knit Calif. community. It feels like they're part of something bigger, and aren't just some guys sitting in front of a computer manufacturing a phony genre. That's important: Nothing on Hasta La Muerte will change the course of music, no, but Xibalba's the sort of hardcore group that has a pretty great chance of changing a few individual worlds.